Telegram and an American startup will sue over the GRAM cryptocurrency

The Telegram messenger filed a lawsuit against the American startup Lantah LLC, which plans to release its own cryptocurrency called gram. Pavel Durov believes that this trademark violates his rights to the brand.

The Gram brand has become a stumbling block for the two companies. The company of a Russian entrepreneur, as well as an American startup, are developing a digital currency with almost the same name. According to Durov’s representatives, gram is consonant with the name GRAM cryptocurrency, which the messenger plans to launch in the near future. Since the beginning of this year, Telegram Group has held two rounds of fundraising for the Telegram Open Network (TON), which is being developed, which plans to use Gram tokens for internal payments. in February 2018, Telegram alone raised $850 million from 81 investors. In total, according to the SEC, Telegram raised $1.7 billion for the implementation of a project that uses the Gram trademark. At the same time, Lantah filed an application to register the rights to the Gram trademark with the US Patent Office on February 25. 

Telegram representatives claim that Lantah decided to take advantage of the fame of the brand, for which considerable funds had already been raised and a serious advertising campaign had been carried out, in its own commercial interests. Lantah LLC filed its patent application in February, after the first successful round of investment in its own Gram cryptocurrency and the Telegram Open Network (TON) blockchain platform. 

Telegram accuses Lantah of dishonesty and seeking to profit from the widely advertised Telegram brand. The lawsuit, filed in San Francisco District Court, states that Lantah's unauthorized use of the GRAM brand may cause confusion and mislead consumers regarding the affiliation between Lantah's products and Telegram when in fact no such affiliation or connection exists. 

In response to the accusations, Daniel Jeffrey, the main owner of Lantah LLC, noted that he had no information about plans to use the Gram Telegram trademark and Lantah used this trademark before Telegram. 

In Europe, Telegram Messenger Inc has already filed an application with the European Intellectual Property Office at the end of April. It is still unknown how the trial in America will end. 

Telegram is currently conducting closed testing of the service Telegram Passport, the first service for its future blockchain platform Telegram Open Network (TON)

According to https://www.ccn.com